Public Exhibition - Salle Electricity Substation

Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm is holding a Public Drop-In Exhibition to explain the necessity for, and nature of, further works at the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm's electricity substation at Salle in Norfolk. The Exhibition will take place at:

The planned work must be carried out to comply with the requirements of the National Grid, and involves the installation of two harmonic filters at the substation, needed to 'clean' the waveform produced by the wind farm. Some elements of the grid disturb the waveform, for example by rippling it with waveforms of a higher frequency, and these are referred to as harmonics. These harmonics at best compromise the efficiency, at worst the functionality, of the electrical appliances and machinery. A harmonic filter does what the name implies - it filters out the harmonics and re-establishes the sinusoidal waveform..

The work will be carried out by the contractor Alstom, which will be responsible for the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning the plant. The company was selected on the basis of its experience and reputation in similar project.

"Two harmonic filters will be fitted at Salle, one for each export cable," explains Bjørn Mo Ostgren, General Manager of the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm. "Each filter consists of a combination of resistors, capacitors and reactors, and will be housed in a compound to the south east side of the substation. Site access will begin during the first week of February 2015, and we hope the site will be demobilised by the end of November 2015."
Although the Sheringham Shoal Wind Farm is owned by Statoil and Statkraft, two Norwegian companies, and the UK's Green Investment Bank, it has to comply with Ofgem regulations of electricity generated in the UK's territorial waters. This means that Sheringham Shoal's transmission assets, which include Salle substation, and on completion the harmonic filters, are independently owned by an investment company, Blue Transmission Sheringham Shoal.

Bjørn Mo Ostgren went on to say: "We extend a warm welcome to everyone to drop in to the exhibition on 21st January, to give us the chance to explain the reasons behind this very necessary operation and to reassure them that we will make every effort to minimise the effects of the installation work on local residents."